Teacher-Scholar Legacies: Joanne Inkman
By Jacqui Carrasco, Chair and Professor of Music
For more than three decades, Dr. Joanne Inkman has been an inspirational teacher-scholar in the Wake Forest Department of Music. She has nurtured piano and music students of all levels and performed with consummate artistry as the accompanist for the WFU choirs and in annual solo and chamber music recitals.
Joanne grew up in a richly musical family in Vancouver, Canada — her siblings are all professional musicians — but she had intended to pursue studies in chemistry. Hearing the beautiful songs from the 1964 musical Fiddler on the Roof convinced her that music was instead her calling.
She first arrived in Winston-Salem as a young piano student at the relatively new North Carolina School of the Arts (now UNCSA), where she had been recruited by the renowned piano pedagogue Rebecca Penneys. She moved back to Vancouver for several years to teach piano to children, but she returned to the Triad to study with Clifton Matthews at UNCSA and to eventually gain her D.M.A. from UNCG. Along the way, she added a solo performance in Carnegie Hall to her many accomplishments.
As a graduate student, Joanne discovered that she enjoyed performing in a variety of settings, whether as a soloist, collaborative artist, or as an accompanist for opera and dance classes. She also developed a keen interest in mentoring college students, and soon she was teaching ear-training, theory, score-reading, and piano at universities across North Carolina. In 1994, former Wake Forest Director of Choral Ensembles and Emeritus Professor Brian Gorelick invited her to accompany our Choral Union. Soon after, she joined the WFU faculty to teach piano, and she was quickly recognized by her peers and students alike as a masterful teacher.
During her extensive teaching career at Wake Forest, Joanne also taught a range of courses, including two that she developed: a beginning piano class and a beginning music-reading class. She loved seeing our liberal arts students learning to communicate on the piano and through music, and she treasured the moments they became aware of their musical talents for the first time. Her piano class students always spoke glowingly of her patient mentorship. They also relished the opportunity she gave them at the end of the semester to perform on the Steinway grand piano in Brendle Recital Hall. She has proudly saved those concert programs.
Joanne served the Department of Music, College, and greater community in countless ways, but she was most dedicated to her role as co-director of the WFU Giles-Harris Competitions for the last fifteen years. These annual competitions challenge and showcase our most advanced student musicians, who perform for outside judges and an extended audience of friends, family, faculty, alumni, and donors. Over the years, many of Joanne’s students have competed and earned awards in the morning piano competition.
Undoubtedly, most of the Wake Forest community has had the pleasure of hearing Joanne at the piano. In her role as accompanist of the WF Choirs, now under the directorship of Assistant Professor of Music Chris Gilliam, she has performed at numerous Wait Chapel events such as convocations, Founder’s Days, and the annual Lovefeasts. In Brendle Hall, we had the joy of hearing Joanne play in solo and chamber recitals, as well as at choir concerts, each semester. Performing with our choir students, especially on their tours throughout the U.S., Italy, England, Ireland, Spain, and Portugal, remains a highlight of her long career at Wake Forest.
In retirement, Joanne looks forward to more leisurely travel to visit family and friends throughout North America. She will also continue her daily three-mile walks, possibly exploring new parks throughout Winston-Salem. We are also delighted that she is already planning concerts with her trio, which includes her Wake Forest colleagues Kathy Levy on flute and oboist Anna Lampidis.
We are so grateful for Joanne’s dedication to our students and for the joyful artistry she has shared with the entire Wake Forest community as a superlative teacher-scholar. We look forward to hearing her beautiful playing again soon!